Redskins Finalize Coaching Staff

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va.– The Washington Redskins announced Tuesday that they have named Bradford Banta as assistant special teams coach, Shane Day as assistant offensive line/offensive quality control coach and Jake PeetzaAs offensive quality control coach. In addition, the team announced that it will retain Aubrey Pleasant, who will serve as defensive quality control coach in 2014 after serving as offensive assistant for the Redskins last season. The moves finalize the Redskins' coaching staff for the 2014 season.

Banta spent the last six seasons with the Detroit Lions in various coaching capacities. From 2012-13, Banta served as the Lions' assistant linebackers coach and from 2008-11, he served as the assistant special teams coach. Over the 2010-12 seasons, Banta helped John Wendling tie for first in the NFL in special teams tackles (51). Under Banta in 2011, kicker Jason Hanson finished with 126 points, the fourth-best single-season total in Lions history.

In 2010, the Lions' kick return unit was the third-most improved unit in the NFL in kickoff return average with 3.5 more yards per return than in 2009. Detroit also had the NFL's 10th-most significant improvement in punt return average in 2010 (8.8 avg. in 2009, 12.1 avg. in 2010). Detroit had the fourth-most improved kickoff coverage unit, allowing an average of 2.7 less yards per each kick return in 2010.

Before joining the Lions as a coach in 2008, Banta spent the 2007 season as a tight ends coach for the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. He played for 11 seasons in the NFL as a tight end and long snapper for the Indianapolis Colts (1994-99), New York Jets (2000), Detroit Lions (2001-03) and Buffalo Bills (2004).

Banta, 43, is a native of Baton Rouge, La. He was a four-time letter-winner and two-year starter at tight end at the University of Southern California from 1989-93.

Day joins the Redskins with 13 years of coaching experience across the high school, collegiate and professional levels. Day is a veteran of five NFL seasons, assisting the San Francisco 49ers in a quality control role from 2007-09 and coaching quarterbacks for the Chicago Bears from 2010-11.

Day spent the last two seasons as the quarterbacks coach for the University of Connecticut. In Chicago, Day helped the Bears to an 11-5 record in 2010, securing an NFC North championship and an NFC Championship Game appearance. That season, the Bears posted the fifth-best yards-per-attempt average in the NFC (7.29).

Prior to his time with the Bears, Day spent three seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, helping the team's quarterbacks in 2007, running backs in 2008 and offensive line in 2009. During Day's time in San Francisco, running back Frank Gore gained 3,258 rushing yards, fifth-most in the NFL in that three-year span.

Day was an offensive quality control coach at Michigan in 2005-06. Among his duties in Ann Arbor were the evaluation of quarterback recruits and the development of the quarterbacks already in the program. Day helped the Wolverines earn a berth in the 2007 Rose Bowl against USC.

Day entered coaching as an assistant at Auburn Riverside H.S. in Auburn, Wash. from 2001-04. Before becoming a coach, Day was a two-sport athlete at Rhodes College, playing baseball in addition to playing wide receiver on the school's football team. He earned his degree from Kansas State in 1999.

Peetz spent the 2013 season as an analyst for the football program at the University of Alabama, helping the Crimson Tide to an 11-2 record. Alabama spent the first 13 weeks of the season as the nation's top-ranked team and currently boasts the nation's top recruiting class for 2014, according to Rivals.com.

Peetz spent five seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars from 2008-12. He initially joined the Jaguars as a scouting assistant in May 2008 and later being named the team's BLESTO scout in June 2010. In 2012, the team named Peetz as an offensive assistant, helping Cecil Shorts (55 receptions for 979 yards with seven touchdowns) and 2012 first-round pick Justin Blackmon (64 receptions for 865 yards with five touchdowns) become the first Jaguars receiver duo since 2001 to have 800-plus receiving yards. Blackmon led all NFL rookies in receiving yards and tied for most receptions while setting franchise single-season rookie records for catches, yards, average per reception and touchdowns.

Peetz began his college coaching career in 2006 at Santa Barbara City College, where he served as the safeties coach and strength & conditioning coordinator. He served as offensive staff assistant at UCLA in 2007.

Peetz earned his bachelor's degree in December 2005 while playing football at the University of Nebraska. Peetz, a walk-on, served in a reserve role in the Husker secondary and on special teams. Peetz was one of the most active student-athletes off the field, twice being named to the Brook Berringer Citizenship Team for his extensive community outreach work.

Peetz, 30, is a native of O'Neill, Neb.

Pleasant, 27, spent the 2011-12 seasons as a defensive assistant at Michigan before joining the Redskins as an offensive assistant in 2013. He is a native of Flint, Mich.